In a subsurface terrain, there are many types of faults, for example, branching faults, crossing faults, parallel faults, etc. Faults often appear “fuzzy” or “blurred” on seismic cross sections or in seismic cubes. The exact location of faults may be uncertain and thus, it may be difficult to position faults at an exact location in a 3D geological model displayed to a user.
Faults are generally observed and sampled on seismic cross sections or automatically extracted from seismic data. Uncertainties in the seismic data often provide modeled faults that are unrealistic or inconsistent with other data. For example, when a fault fractures a geological structure, geological layers or terrains on either side of the fault slide relative to each other. However, conventional modeling tools may generate a protrusion (e.g., a bump) on the modeled fault surface. Such a protrusion would have prevented the fault from forming by obstructing relative sliding of terrains on either side of the fault. Therefore, the model of the fault is incorrect.
Accordingly, there is a great need in the art for a mechanism to accurately model the location and geometry of faults.